


Bender Festivals

by StormBerryMC



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Earthbending & Earthbenders, Except For Aang, F/M, Festivals, Firebending & Firebenders, Fluff, Holidays, No Airbenders, Waterbending & Waterbenders, takes place after the show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 18:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13105596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormBerryMC/pseuds/StormBerryMC
Summary: Whoever decided to have all four bender festivals on the same day must've had it out for the Avatar, who is expected to attend all of them. Thankfully, Aang has a great and supportive group of friends to help him.





	Bender Festivals

Aang hopped around his room quite literally on air as he got ready for that night’s events. He had no idea who’s bright idea it was to put all of the bender’s festivals on the same day, but whoever it was must’ve had it out for the avatar, who was expected to attend all of them.

He nearly fell over when Katara poked her head into the room. “Are you ready yet Aang?” she asked.

“Oh, um… Yeah, almost. Let me just…” Aang stammered. He dropped down from his air ball, stood in front of a mirror, and shakily fidgeted with his collar.

Katara laughed and stepped further into the room, coming to stand next to Aang. She gently grasped his hands, and pulled them away from his collar, causing him to look at her.

“Aang, you have nothing to be nervous about. Public appearances are nothing compared to what you did this summer. You’ll be fine.”

Aang sighed, lowering his gaze. “I know. It’s just… This is for all of the benders; earth, fire, and water. They each have their own celebrations about the origins of each power, and I represent not only each power individually, but all of them together. It’s just a lot of pressure. I don’t want to mess anything up, especially the peace that we all worked so hard to achieve…”

He looked up shyly at Katara, who looked back with sympathy and understanding. Then she laughed and gave him a pat on the back. “Trust me Aang, you have nothing to worry about. I don’t think you could ruin anything that has to do with peace if you wanted to.”

Aang stared at Katara for a moment, then let out a light chuckle. “I guess you’re right.” he said, taking a deep breath.

Katara shrugged. “Of course I am, now get out of here. Toph is waiting with Appa, and she’s starting to get impatient.”

Aang nodded. “Are you coming?” he asked.

Katara shook her head. “Nope, Sakka and I have to get ready for the waterbending festival, but I’ll see you tonight.” she said.

“Okay, stay safe!” Aang called to her as he summered a ball or air and floated out the door.

Toph was indeed growing impatient. “What took you so long twinkle toes, you misplace your headdress?” she said with a mix of annoyance and amusement, like always.

Aang rolled his eyes as he hopped onto Appa, taking the reigns. “No, I was just getting ready.”

Toph cocked her head. “The only person I know who takes that long to get ready is my mom. You better not be wearing makeup, cause you’re probably gonna get really dirty today.”

“Noted.” Aang said.

The ride to the festival was rather quiet. Aang almost didn’t notice at first due to his own nerves, but once he got over them he realized that Toph wasn’t usually this quiet. He decided to make smalltalk and maybe find out if something was bothering her.

“So…” he said, clearing his throat. “Have you ever been to an earthbending festival?”

Toph looked up in surprise, but then shrugged. “Yeah, I’ve been a few times. It’s usually pretty boring without the Avatar though. Just a simple mole parade and weird food.”

Aang gave a little “hmm…” in response, and then they both returned to silence.

“Um… Sure is a nice day out.” Aang tried.

Toph looked in his general direction, then up at the sky. “Wow, it sure is! Just look at that sky!” she said sarcastically. “Oh wait…”

Aang blushed. “Sorry, I was just…” he began, trying to explain himself.

“What? Trying to make small talk until you figured out what was bothering me?” Toph interrupted. “Nice try twinkle toes, but small talk isn’t really your strong suit.”

Aang thought about denying it, but it wouldn’t do any good, so he cleared his throat and apologized again. He thought it would be silent for the rest of the trip, but then Toph sighed.

“It is sweet, I suppose, that you want to find out what’s wrong. I guess… I’m glad you care, or whatever.” she paused, as if trying to decide if she would actually tell him or not.

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to.” Aang said. “I just wanted to make you were… okay. I didn’t mean pry.”

Toph shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s just… well, it’s kind of stupid. I always went to these festivals with my parents, and I was thinking about… I was wondering if they were gonna show up or not, so I was just thinking about that.”

Aang thought about what Toph was saying. “Oh, that’s…” he started.

“I know it’s dumb, but I just couldn’t help wondering.” Toph interrupted (she sure did that often)

“No no! It’s not dumb!” Aang exclaimed. “Do… do you want them to show up?” he asked carefully.

Toph thought about it. “Honestly? I don’t know.” she finally said. “They always treated me like I couldn’t do anything for myself, and that I would never be able to do anything worthwhile, and that hurt, you know?” 

Aang nodded, before realizing Toph couldn’t see him and gave a “mmhmm”

“But at the same time,” she continued. “They’re my parents, and I did have fun with them at the earthbending festivals. I mean, as much fun as I could have being practically smothered by them. They always went because I wanted to, so if they come… Or don’t come…”

Toph didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to. Aang understood, and he put his arm around Toph, and when she didn’t pull away or push him right off of Appa, he sighed in relief.

Toph spoke again, her voice surprisingly quiet. “I don’t want to be forced to admit that they’ve left me behind them, but if they do show up, they could try to take me back, and still not be able to see that I’m capable of doing things. I don’t know…”

“It’s okay if you miss your parents Toph… And it’s okay if you don’t! If they don’t come, you still have all of us who care about you. If they do come… I mean, they must’ve heard about everything that happened this summer, and if they still can’t see how capable you are, well then… They’re blinder than you!”

He paused, hoping he said the right thing. Then Toph began to laugh. She continued to laugh until tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Wow twinkle toes, you sure know how make people feel better.” she finally said.

There was a moment of silence, before Toph moved away from Aang. “Okay, I’m done with this mushy stuff. Don’t think this means I’m gonna start sharing my feelings with everybody at the Avatar circle of healing or anything!”

At this, Aang let out a hearty laugh. “Got it.”

If you had to describe the earthbender’s festival in one word, it would be… Extra. Everything was energized and exciting. When Toph and Aang landed, people ran to greet them. Once they broke free from the crowd that had surrounded them, they walked through the streets of Gaoling. Aang marveled at the street performers, vendors, and all the different and creative ways people were using their bending. When they rounded a corner, Aang froze and yelped as something big and alive looking sat in front of them.

Toph stopped walking, but after a few seconds, started to laugh. “I’m guessing we’re standing in front of the mole rock.” she said.

Aang calmed down and looked closer, realizing that he was indeed looking at a huge rock, in the shape of a mole. “Uh… yeah, it just startled me.” he said, blushing.

“That rock is the main attraction in the parade. It’s to honor the origins of our bending.” said Toph. “You’re going to be in the parade too twinkle toes.”

Aang gasped. “What? But I’ve never been in a parade before!” he said, slightly panicked.

Toph shrugged. “Nothing much to it. You just stand on a rock float, smile, and wave at people.”

Aang took a deep breath. “Okay, I can do this. Where’s the float?” he asked.

Toph somehow lead him through the crowded streets and down a dark alleyway. Eventually, they came to a line of rock floats, and Toph pointed to the one at the end. “You’re the grand finale.” she said. Aang gulped and hopped up to his seat.

“What about you?” he asked, looking down at Toph.

“I have my own act in the parade.” she responded, before making her way to another float.

Before Aang knew it, the floats began moving. He steadied himself and began to prepare himself. “Smile and wave. Should be easy enough.” he told himself.

He began to hear loud cheers ahead of him, and looked forward. He couldn’t see Toph, but what he did see was balls of metal floating in the air, being manipulated by the very first metal bender. That was when Aang realized who everyone was cheering for, and he wanted to cheer too. But then his float made it into the view of people, and when they saw him, everyone went crazy.

Aang smiled widely and waved at people as he passed by them. He looked down and saw a line of earthbenders on both sides of the streets, all of them working hard to make the rock floats move smoothly down the parade path. It was truly a sight to behold.

Eventually, smiling and waving got boring, so Aang decided to do some earthbending tricks. When he combined it with his airbending, the people stared in awe. Everyone was amazing by his tricks, and by the time the parade had ended, Aang was smiling wider than before.

Toph shared a similar smile. “That was the best. I could hear everyone cheering for me!”

Aang nodded. “Your metal bending was amazing!”

“Toph?” said a voice behind them.

Aang turned around to see Toph’s parents standing there. Toph couldn’t see them, but she certainly recognized the voice, and her eyes widened

“Mom? Dad?” she said, sounding shocked.

“Hello dear.” said Toph’s mother. “We saw you in the parade, and… Well, we just wanted to come see you.” she paused. “We’ve missed you.”

Toph blinked, not knowing what to say.

“We were hoping you would come home with us.” said Toph’s father. “We see now how capable you’ve become in the hands of the Avatar. You can carry on the family name with pride.” He moved forward to give Toph a hug, but she backed away.

“No…” she said uncertainly

Her parent looked at each other, then back at their daughter. “What did you say?” her father asked.

“No! I’m not going to carry on the family name!” she said, sounding more confident. “All you’ve done is treated me like I’m incapable of doing anything, and now just expect me to come back and do things for the family. And it wasn’t Aang that made me capable, because I already was! He and his friends were just the first ones to see it!”

Toph’s parents stared at her in shock. Her father opened his mouth angrily to say something, but her mother beat him to it. “Please Toph, we love you, we… I just want to have you back home again!” her eyes were pleading, and even though Toph couldn’t see it, she knew that her mother’s words were genuine.

Toph sighed. “I’m sorry mother, but I can’t come home. There are so many thing that I want to do with my life, and so many more ways I can help the Avatar.” she paused. “But… I will visit sometimes. So that I can see you.”

Toph’s mother gasped happily “Really? You will?”

Toph nodded. “We can hang out tonight, like we used to. What do you say?”

Toph’s father still looked irritated, but when he saw the look on his wife’s face, he relented. “Okay, I suppose it’s your choice Toph.”

Toph smiled, and the three of them began to walk off together. Suddenly, she stopped and turned back to Aang. “Are you going to be alright on your own?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’ll hang around for a little while, and then I have to go to the firebending festival.” said Aang.

Toph laughed. “Have fun with that. In the past, they had reenactments of the battle between the last Avatar and Fire Lord!”

Aang gulped. _Hopefully Zukko has done a little reinventing for this year’s festival…_


End file.
